A large-scale fake prescription and fraud racket targeting EOPYY, Greece’s National Organisation for Healthcare Services Provision, has been dismantled by the Hellenic Police. According to the authorities, the scheme had been operating undisturbed for at least six years, causing financial damage to the Greek state of more than €405,000, while 5,429 falsely issued prescriptions have so far been identified.

According to information, the arrested alleged ringleader had stood as a parliamentary candidate for PASOK in the 2023 national elections.

According to the Hellenic Police, the leading member of the organisation was arrested on Thursday morning in Attica during a coordinated police operation carried out in cooperation with EOF, Greece’s National Organisation for Medicines. A further nine people are included in the case file, among them a psychiatrist, a family doctor working in public hospitals, and pharmacy owners and managers.

How the fraud worked

The ring is believed to have been active from at least March 2020 until April 2026, operating through a clearly structured hierarchy and defined roles.

According to the information available, the key to the fraud lay in the selection of victims. Members of the organisation identified the AMKA numbers – Greece’s social security registration numbers – of insured people who had not activated the paperless prescription system.

As a result, these citizens never received an SMS or email notification for prescriptions issued in their name, allowing the alleged scheme to remain undetected.

The prescriptions were then executed fictitiously through forged signatures, while the medicines were either reimbursed by EOPYY or channelled through pharmacies for illegal profit.

The countdown to dismantling the network began after EOPYY itself filed a complaint, triggering a months-long investigation by the authorities.

The evidence seized

During the searches, police located and seized a large quantity of evidence which, according to the authorities, indicates the scale of the alleged activity. The findings included:

• 240 packages of illegally prescribed medicines, some of which contained narcotic substances.

• A large number of documents, including handwritten notes, prescriptions, medical opinions, health booklets, and detached authenticity strips and medicine barcodes.

• €1,200 in cash.

• A laptop computer, a mobile phone and a car.

A case file has been formed against those involved, as applicable, for criminal organisation, fraud, forgery, false certification, illegal processing of personal data, money laundering and violations of drug legislation.